Leadership Is The Process Of Influencing People By Providing Purpose, Direction, And Motivation

The word leadership has a lot of meanings, but its meaning is unique to the person who is giving the definition. Leadership is the ability to guide, direct, and motivate others to accomplish a mission or task. It is the ability to make subordinates see their own potential in their abilities and supervisors recognize and respect it. Leaders are entrusted with building up those they lead to ensure the individual can one day assume the responsibility of leading others. It is for this reason that the situational approach style of leadership best describes my leadership style.

What is leadership? When examining this question it is important to understand what it means to be a leader within an organization. “Leadership is the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change (Achua, 2010, p. 6). Leaders serves people best when they help them develop their own initiative and good judgment, enable them to grow, and help them become better contributors (Thomas S Bateman, 2010, p. 66). Unlike management leadership flows from the core of a personality and cannot be taught; although leadership can be learned and may be enhanced through coaching and mentoring. Leadership involves unique processes that are distinguishable from basic management processes (Thomas S Bateman,

Leadership is defined in the textbook as someone who “get people to do things they have never done before, to do things that are not routine, and to take risks – and sometimes

The definition of "leadership" as defined in Wikipedia means "the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others."

Leadership is defined as the ability to obtain followers (Maxwell). Obtaining a following is dependent on one's influence on others. Essentially, everyone influences someone, whether one intentionally influences a

Leadership is dynamic, charismatic and fragile all rolled up into one. There are many words that describe leadership and leadership is defined differently by all. As I sit and type this paper I realized the date, 28 Aug. On this date 10 years ago, I was thrust into a roll that would define my leadership style. Hurricane Katrina made land fall over the city of New Orleans (NOLA) on 28 Aug 2005, this storm created havoc and destruction never before seen in the United States. I was in charge of 12 Coast Guardsman and 3 Coast Guard Airboats in which we would crew. Upon arrival in NOLA we were joined up with the 82nd Airborne Division and assigned 12 Scouts from the 2/505 platoon. These men were on the heels of returning from battle overseas and had been home for less than 30 days. Again these soldiers were thrust into action, but now they had a completely different mission. Joining forces with the Coast Guard and conducting door to door urban search and rescue was now the priority. Over the next 27 days we all grew to trust and count on one another and from the deplorable conditions in which we all suffered it lead to my leadership philosophy.

How I define leadership has mostly to do with 27 years of service in the Army and 20 of those years spent as a Non-Commissioned Officer. Simply put, I believe leadership is the balancing of two competing priorities, the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of the people that are in your charge. Others can probably think up a million of other subcategories that go into defining leadership, but I believe those are the two over arching things a leader has to do. I see those two priorities being symbiotic because without the people I can’t accomplish the mission but without the mission I don’t need the people.

Every person who enters the field of education has both the opportunity and an obligation to be a leader (Dufour, Marzano, 2011). Leadership defined by Owen (2002) is, “A journey of discovery. It is the expression of a person at his or her best whose aim is to transform something for the better and to develop this potential in others. It is not a solitary pursuit but one that harnesses the energy of those around you. Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers engage to achieve mutual goals. Prentice (2004) defines leadership as the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants. A great leader is one who can do so day after day, and year after year, in a wide variety of circumstances.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, leadership is the power or ability to lead other people, the act or instance of leading. I believe that Leadership is an art, the art to get others to follow and accomplish a common goal or task in a harmonic manner. A leader can be shown in all kinds of shapes and forms. To be a great leader many people believe it consists of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart. Over the course of me learning how to become a better leader and being in leadership roles, I’ve learned that all these are very necessary to be a great leader.

The Oxford American dictionary defines leadership as the act of leading a group of people. To me, that’s a bit understated. In my opinion, leadership, and the act of being a leader, is much more than that. Leadership is having the responsibility to stand in front of a group of people and be able to inspire and influence them to work toward a common goal. Leadership is having the trust of the people you are representing to help the team make positive changes and positive steps forward towards that goal. Leadership is an act of selflessness to do what’s right for the group as a whole, and not just yourself. A leader is ethical, assertive, progressive, and inclusive. Leadership is taking responsibility for the actions of your team, and it’s up

According to Collins English dictionary, Leadership is the art of leading others to deliberately create a result that wouldn’t have happen otherwise. A leader helps himself and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where one need to go to achieve a goal as a team or an organization and it is dynamic, exciting, and inspiring for those who participate in this journey. Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way.

Leadership is as a simple idea and concept of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Many say that leadership takes charisma or that some are natural born leaders; others may even add that leadership stems from a relationship of bestowing and taking from other leaders and followers. For George S. Patton, General and leader of troops he was a fearless transformational leadership that inspirited his Third army to achieve the impossible. Not every form of leadership can can command the fear and instant obedience of a U.S. Army general.

My idea of leadership is being able to inspire others, motivate, set a vision, communicate, respect others, and of course, lead by example. A leader must have an honest understanding of who they are, what they know, and what they are capable of. To be a successful leader, you have to be able to convince your followers, not just yourself or your superiors, that you are worthy of being followed. In my opinion, this can build confidence in their followers to have faith in you, in order to be able to lead. I strongly believe that good leaders are made rather, and not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders are developed through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and

I define leadership as setting a determined example through personal actions and ethics that influences others to greater levels of performance. I set a high standard for myself. I expect the same of others. I strongly believe in setting the example for those around me as a result of poor leaders I have had the misfortune to serve under in the past. I have worked for Chiefs who had no idea what I, or those that worked with and for me, did on a daily basis. I have worked for Chief’s whose relationships with the chain of command were so toxic they forced me to work around them in order to accomplish any tasks. I have worked for Master Chiefs who stepped into a job where they had no clue what our division’s purpose was; rather than learn it,

Leadership is a difficult word to define and according to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary leadership is the “office or position of a leader” (Miriam-Webster, 2010). This definition is definitely not one that I would ascribe to when discussing leadership. My definition of leadership is “the ability someone has to motivate and empower others to achieve a goal.” Some may add to this definition, others may discard it altogether and have a completely different definition. In the end, leadership takes on many different forms depending on who is doing the defining and we end up asking ourselves, what is leadership and why do we care?